Italian opera singer, Andrea Bocelli, has sung in Milan’s Duomo Cathedral without an audience, in an effort to bring people together during the global coronavirus lockdown.
The solo concert, Andrea Bocelli: Music for Hope, was streamed live on YouTube and left 3.4 million viewers around the world in tears as Bocelli’s famous tenor rang out in an otherwise eerily quiet Milan on Easter Sunday.
Bocelli performed a repertoire of sacred works including “Ave Maria,” “Sancta Maria” and “Domine Deus,” and he was accompanied by the cathedral organist, Emanuele Vianelli, playing one of the world’s largest pipe organs.
In a statement before the performance, Bocelli said the event would hopefully send ‘love, healing and hope’ to Italy amid the COVID-19 crisis.
“This won’t be a concert and it won’t be a performance, it will be a prayer and as a consequence, it will not be important who is present physically but rather who wants to be with me spiritually in that moment,” Bocelli wrote.
“I believe in the strength of praying together. I believe in the Christian Easter, a universal symbol of rebirth that everyone, whether they are believers or not, truly needs right now.
“Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded Earth’s pulsing heart, this wonderful international forge that is reason for Italian pride.”
Bocelli, through the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, is also raising funds to provide hospitals with important resources such as instruments and protective equipment for medical staff.
Watch Bocelli’s performance during Music for Hope: Live from Duomo di Milano below:
